Done!

A few hours ago I sent the last files, and an invoice to my editor at Facts on File. I am officially done with the two books I have been writing! These books are aimed to provide supplemental instruction to high school physics students, one on Light and Sound and the other on Electricity and Magnetism. They are on the way to being published sometime by the end of the year (I think). I will soon be a published author! 

Now what to do with my "spare" time?

Big Girl Bed!

      For Keely's 2nd birthday next month, Daniel and I bought her a big-girl bed. Instead of doing a toddler bed or a mattress on the floor we decided to buy a bunk bed set. We bought a twin over full bunk bed, with the plan to not put the full bed together at this time. She'll sleep on the 'top' bunk (on the ground) since it already has the safety railings. Hopefully by time she outgrows the railings we will have a second child ready to move up into the bed with railings. I don't know if these beds will ever be bunked but it seemed economical to buy 2 beds at once.
      So the beds came in last weekend and since Keely tends to resist changes to her pattern we thought we'd set it up in her room so that she could play in it, get used to it, etc. And we could just wait until she was ready and asked to sleep in it instead of pushing her. Though if she waited too long we would have had to force her since she has to be out of the crib before my surgery (since I won't be able to pick her up out of a crib for months after). Keely really enjoyed helping Daniel put the beds together Saturday night. She had a screwdriver in one hand and a long bolt in the other and she kept pretending to screw in the screws on the sides. She kept saying 'working' and 'helping'. It was pretty adorable as you can see in the picture below!

      So it was bedtime by time we were done setting up the bed and Keely immediately wanted to sleep in her "big-girl bed".  To be honest, I was not at all prepared for this but I wanted to be supportive so we put her down in the bed. However, as soon as we closed the door she was in the dark and freaked out, I assume because she just wasn't sure where the edges of the bed were. I couldn't handle it so I went in and moved her to the crib, which was actually a terrible plan! She cried for about an hour about her big-girl bed. Finally she fell asleep. The next day we tried napping in the bed, and it went alright. She wasn't scared (maybe because it was light?) though she did play in the bed for about 2 hours before falling asleep for a few hours. We moved the stepstool away from the bed and she seemed to believe that trapped her in. Here is a picture of her playing in her new bed that first night.

      This whole week Keely has slept all night in her bed with no problems. She frequently lays in bed and talks to herself for awhile, though this wasn't uncommon in her crib. Naps have been a little bit more difficult. Sleep is hit or miss for nap time. Sometimes she gets a great nap and is pleasant all evening and others she doesn't nap at all and makes herself (and us) miserable.  She is super proud of the bed though and spent about 30 minutes showing it to Nana and Bagdi (her name for my dad. No we have no idea where it came from.) via Skype. On Wednesday we went ahead and took apart her crib while she was in the tub and she hasn't even seemed to noticed. I am, by far, having a harder time with this transition than she is. Where did my baby go???

Keely's Hiding Spot

So this past week we found Keely's spot for hiding things. Except it is more of a one-way hiding spot. She can put stuff in, but can't get it out. When the recliner in our couch is reclined, there is a gap in the back of the couch. See below.

Apparently, Keely has been dropping stuff into this gap for some time now. We discovered it when she dropped her Mardi Gras beads down into this hole and flipped out. (She was obsessed with those beads for about 5 days. They went everywhere with us.) I couldn't figure out where she lost them until I asked her and she pointed into the hole. Daniel reached into the hole and pulled out...
3 spoons - 1 serving spoon, and 2 toddler spoons
1 dirty sock (thanks Daniel)
1 favorite book (Dear Zoo)
3 sets of beads

He is pretty certain that there is more in the couch that he just can't reach. I love our silly girl!

30 Minutes in a Coffin

I'm really hoping that the hardware they're putting in my spine this summer means NO MORE MRI's. Like always, during today's I had to fight off the panic that comes from being in a tiny tube. My hands were on my stomach and my elbows pressed against the sides. I asked for a washcloth to cover my eyes so I didn't open them and see HOW close it was to my face because I know that would have set me off. When I realized how fast I was breathing I started counting my breaths to slow me down. I got to about 500 and I know I missed several. I've seen the difference between the detail of an MRI vs a CT so I get why they are preferred but they scare the crap out of me. On top of the being in a box feeling I've watched way too many doctor shows and I get paranoid that I forgot a piece of metal on me somewhere and am about to have it ripped out. If they ever do make me have an MRI post-surgery (supposedly the plates and screws are deep enough to not be a problem) I'm demanding some drugs. Not sure I can fight off the coffin-panic AND the oh-my-god-my-spine-is-going-be-ripped-out panic.

Big News (No, I'm not pregnant)

Since many of my TN friends don't know much or anything about my car accident, I'm going to review a bit. This is likely to be long, feel free to skip to the bottom. In Aug 2008 I was in a car accident where my car rolled over, and in the process managed to slam roof-first into a tree. I was air lifted to a hospital where they saw that I had broken 5 vertebrae, and a few ribs. I was also about 5 weeks pregnant (we'd found out the weekend before). Two of the vertebrae, C5 and C6 were minor fractures in my neck (basically the back of the vertebrae broke off, most likely due to the air bag deploying). I also broke T8, T9, and T10, vertebra in the center of my chest cavity. T9 was the worst, a burst fracture likely caused when the roof collapsed in when it struck the tree. I have no memory of 2 days before the accident and about 12 days after so we don't know what caused me to run off the road into that ditch. Despite being a terrible driver in my teens, I'm actually pretty good now so I like to believe that it wasn't my fault. Maybe I swerved to miss something in the road?
   Due to the pregnancy and other factors, my doctor at the time decided not to do surgery and instead I wore a hard shell plastic brace for 14 weeks. By time they removed it I was 4 months pregnant and it did NOT fit any longer! Before removing it the doctor had me undergo an MRI (in Dec 08) to check and make sure I was healed enough. At that time we noticed T9 had not healed in the correct shape, its now rather wedge-shaped. After Keely was born I was still having a good deal of back pain, worsening until the doctor had me undergo another MRI (11/09).  It showed that T9 had continued to 'crush', furthering the curvature of my spine, called kyphosis. The doctor at that time thought my spine was likely done changing shape and did not recommend surgery, saying that it was very invasive and 'experimental'.
    This past fall my usual pain level increased. I thought it might be due to the fact that I pick up Keely so much more now that I'm home all day with her. I found a new neurosurgeon here in TN and he suggested another scan, though he let me get away with a CT scan so I wouldn't have to spend ~30 minutes in a coffin. (Seriously, have you ever had an MRI? They suck.) Below are my three scans so you can see the shape of my spine and the changes over these past three years. They are in date order (08, 09, and then 10).

    After reviewing the scan he suggested that I talk to a surgeon able to repair that kind of damage, and he recommended one. I went online and found poor reviews for that surgeon so I asked to be referred to the Neurosurgeon practice attached to UT Medical Center because they were trying to do some minimally invasive thoracic surgery. Repairing the thoracic spine is complicated because its surrounded by so many organs and protected by the ribcage from the front.
     This past Thursday I met with my new neurosurgeon, Dr Abel. I was really impressed with him and he spent about 45 minutes with us making sure I understood everything. When I explained that I was pregnant when the accident occurred his first question was 'How was the baby?' He started by taking us to look at the back scans, measuring the curvature and its changes. He pointed out that T10 is changing shape as well, though I don't know if thats new or no one ever pointed it out before. He said we could continue to wait and see if the kyphosis worsens, or we could do surgery to correct it. When asked he suggested surgery due to my age and the way the pain interferes with my life.
     He actually gave us two surgical options. First, have a 2-stage surgery where they perform a thoracotomy (cut in through my ribcage, deflate my lung and move my organs out of the way to approach the spine from the front) where they would remove T9 and T10 and replace them with titanium cylinders. Then they would approach the spine from the back to put in rods and screws and do a spinal fusion. This option would completely straighten my spine (I have a noticeable hunch) and SHOULD get rid of all of my pain. Option 2 would just be the approach from the back and fusion. He thinks that they could straighten my spine some, but not completely but this should also get rid of most/all of my pain. Dr. Abel told us to go home, sleep on it, pray about it and then call back if we wanted to schedule surgery. He also wanted me to have a lower back MRI to make sure there is no damage down there causing my lower back pain. Both surgeries would involve a 6-level fusion as Dr. Abel would want to fuse two above and two below the damaged vertebrae. That would be T7-T12. This is a large portion of my spine that would no longer be mobile but he thinks as its in the thoracic cavity (which doesn't move much anyway) that I wouldn't lose much or any range of motion.
      Daniel and I spent a lot of this weekend talking about this and we've decided to go with the less invasive surgery (option 2). Per Dr Abel, should we ever decide or need to replace the vertebrae we could always do it later. I don't think the cosmetic benefit of straightening my spine is worth the thoracotomy. Most of you aren't aware of the limitations this pain puts on me, but as an example on Friday I was holding a friend's adorable 7ish month old son and after 15 minutes I was in pain. I want to be able to hold my next children as much as I want and I want to be able to play on the floor with them. Keely is so independent and I don't know if thats her nature, or if she developed that way because I couldn't hold her for long periods of time.
      I put in a phone call to Dr. Abel's nurse to schedule the surgery yesterday and I'm waiting on a call back. (I assume they have been in surgery.) We're aiming for July 8th, though I'll update when we have a for sure date. The doc says I should plan on doing nothing for about a month so I'm working on 'scheduling' people to come and take care of me and Keely. Thats why we are waiting until July, so my mom and dad can be here for a few weeks.
    I figured this post would be an easy way to tell this long story to a lot of you at once, and I know I'm going to be posting about the surgery a LOT in the coming months, since I'm already nervous about it. Its going to be a very hard recovery, but in the long run it will be worth it.

**Update - Surgery is officially scheduled for July 8th!**

'I Crying'

Keely says a lot of hilarious things, but I like this one. Yesterday we went to a church group play date at a pottery studio in a mall in west Knoxville and then grabbed some lunch. On the way home Keely was very tired and pretty fussy. First she fake cried,  trying to get her way with the radio. We don't want to always listen to Raffi, so the rule is that she picks the music on the way there, and we pick it on the way back (or vice versa). When fake crying didn't work she started saying 'I Crying.' I mean really, too lazy to even fake the tears? You just inform us that you're crying? Silly baby!

Good Times in Asheville

Last weekend we met up with Megan (my best friend since 8th grade) and her husband Tim in Asheville. Megan and I have tried to make a tradition out of spending a weekend in Feb together (usually around President's Day) and we've been pretty good about it thus far. We had a great time, Keely really loved spending time with Aunt Megan (who she obstinately called Amy all weekend) and Uncle Tim. It was also just a nice change. I really love my friends from GA and the new friends I'm making here in TN, but its so different to be with two people who were there for most of my growing up. They've both known me about twice as long as Daniel has. These are the people I did stupid shit with in high school and they've seen me at my best and worst. I'm so lucky to have them in my life to remind me of where I've been.

This video shows Keely playing fetch with Megan and Tim's dog Honey (honey bear as Keely called her) and tackling Megan for a hug at the end.

Keely really loved watching Megan and I (and Daniel once) play Just Dance. She really liked to put the controls on and 'dance' with us. We kept encouraging her to at least shake the controllers, and Megan even danced with her a few times, like in the video here.

We got addicting to the sword fighting in Wii resort and Megan and I proved that button mashing trumps strategy. Plus its just more fun. Look at Megan's face in these pictures! She was so hilarious!

My Boon!

When we went to pick out Keely's big-girl bed for her birthday, the salesman gave Keely a balloon. She loves it, as can be seen in the video below. So much so that 2 weeks later she still won't let us throw the balloon away, despite it being a shriveled piece of latex.

So two days later Papa brought her home a balloon for valentine's day! The whole next day she kept saying 'Tank you Papa, boon'